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Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Store cupboard dinners challenge week! Day 1

So again, well as usual but extremely so, I am broke and the cost of living keeps on keeping on up. I hate feeling like I can barely afford to feed the family. It could either depress the hell out of me or spur me on to rise to the challenge. So I'm challenging myself to a week of store-cupboard dinners again ... if there is the odd ingredient that is a game changer and not in the house I'm prepared to buy it otherwise if it's not in the cupboard or the veg plot its not on the menu.

Yesterday got off to a great start. We went blackberrying. I am besotted with the subtle start of autumn, she turns me into a hopeless romantic, poetic and whimsical ... my thoughts are poetic my food is poetic, I'm just utterly in love this time of year. The kids and I are almost addicted to the high we get from gathering in all the blackberries we can carry if pots and bags become too full then bellies are good for transporting berries too! So we had apple and blackberry pie for pudding ... i bought 1 x cooking apple for this otherwise it is totally FREEGAN!

For main course I assembled an alternative lasagna. Chestnut mushrooms from the fridge and courgettes from the garden very finely chopped which I charred with garlic and homegrown tomato, herb and honey passata arranged ratatouille style between the layers of pasta from the freezer and homemade bechmel sauce. It was probably the best vegetarian lasagna I have ever eaten and I'm not just blowing my own trumpet.

For lunch the kids ate jacket potatoes from the garden with a bit of butter and hommous (which I bought as they won't eat my home made hommous ... whats with that??!!) and I had some raw beetroot salad that was left over from yesterday ... also entirely store cupboard/garden made.

Gaia made shortbread biscuits which we had all the ingredients for and we even had icing sugar too so they are a slightly naughtier treat now!

Tomorrow I have a picnic to prepare for too but I have scanned the cupboards and made a list of all sorts of possibilities for the rest of the week, I can do this! And with the money I am saving I plan to take the kids to the cinema tomorrow for kids am as the tickets are only £1.75 each even for mama. I am working a night shift tonight so it is perfect - they watch the film, I snooze in the dark and a lovely end of school holiday treat.

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I am a nature loving mama blessed with two wee wildlings living in East Anglia, old land of the Iceni, in England.
I am a weaver of words, stitcher of stories and curious of thoughts. I write experientially, when it flows and needed a space to collate these things for myself and for friends. So here we are. Brew up a tea and make sure it’s a big slice of cake you have there before you sit down and read. Enjoy X